Our Team
Wood Harbinger employees participate in several company, community, and volunteer events. We host a variety of activities, ranging from our mentorship programs to our annual food drive.
Additionally, several of our employees have spearheaded efforts to give co-workers the opportunity to spend time together outside of the office. Employees have organized ski and snowboard trips, a bike riding team, a fly fishing team, and even a competitive volleyball team.
The following examples are just some of a few activities that employees participated in and have organized.
Wood Harbinger Supports Future Engineers
The ACE Mentor Program is designed to teach high school students in grades 9-12 about Architecture, Construction and Engineering. The program is a nationwide program that was brought to the Seattle area in 2001. This year saw the largest student participation in the area’s history - over 200 students divided into 9 teams. The mentor team was made up of architects from JPC Architects, structural engineers from DCI Engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers from Wood Harbinger, and project managers from Mortenson Construction.
The idea behind the program is to have the students create and develop a project (i.e. a building) to the point of a conceptual design. While doing this, the students are exposed to the various disciplines that require coordination to take a building from concept to reality. Our group leader selected an actual piece of commercial property in the Bellevue area and assigned this property to the students to develop. Providing this kind of constraint gave the students the opportunity to learn about project scale and site planning. After numerous project proposals (ranging from a chocolate factory to the world’s largest McDonald’s), the students decided to design the Bellevue Aquatic Center. The building consisted of an Olympic sized pool, spectator seating, gym, offices, and locker rooms. The building was three levels with one large glass wall and a glass dome at the top. The mechanical systems included condensing boilers, radiant floor heating, natural ventilation, a heat recovery unit serving the locker rooms and an air handling unit serving the office area.
Wood Harbinger Senior Mechanical Engineer and mentor for the ACE program, Mike Cato, found that participating in this program surpassed his expectations. "I caught myself being surprised a couple of times at the amount of knowledge that most of these students brought into the program. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that their attendance was generally 90% of the students at all the meetings. They always seemed interested and eager to learn. All in all, I found the experience of working with the students a rewarding one." - Mike Cato.
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Fly Fishing Club
The Wood Harbinger Fly Fishing Club includes Tara and Terry Frentrop, Audra Dybdahl, Murray Peck, David and Muriel Drewes-Moore, Chris Frank, and Ralph Maier.
Come the end of April, the Wood Harbinger fly fishing team heads to lakes within the Seattle area - float tube and all. Rattlesnake Lake is the favorite spot, although the team also fishes at Lake Margaret and Lake Alice. Most commonly reeled in are trout, but on occasion, a small mouth bass is also caught.
As the team gears up for the next fishing season, they practice tying flies. The fly fishing team is always seeking new feathers for their ties and they are willing to donate fresh rainbow trout in exchange for donations.
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Back in Action for the Holidays!
In the past, Wood Harbinger has sponsored families through the Department of Social and Health Services and Angel Tree. For this most recent holiday season, we decided to take on a more active role by volunteering. We contacted Hopelink, a non profit organization that helps families in need.
Among the many charitable events Hopelink organizes, they host a Gift Room to help parents treat their children to presents during the holiday season. Donated gift items are organized in the manner of a retail store, marked in value with points. Wood Harbinger employees, family members, and friends aided in running the "store", helping parents exchange their gifted points for presents for their children.
Many families were able to enjoy the gift-giving holiday season, thanks to the efforts of Hopelink and Hopelink's volunteers.
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